Alexandre de Gramont

Alexandre (“Alex”) de Gramont is a Partner in the Business Litigation Group, where he leads the firm’s International Disputes Practice.  Alex has represented clients in complex cross-border disputes before many of the world’s leading arbitration bodies.  He also handles related litigation in the trial and appellate courts of the United States.

Alex has been recognized as a leading international arbitration lawyer in publications such as Chambers Global, Chambers USA, The Legal 500, The Best Lawyers in America, Benchmark Litigation, Who’s Who Legal:  Arbitration (Global Leader), and Law Dragon (500 Leading Global Litigators). He is Chambers-ranked in two categories:  international arbitration and enforcement litigation.

Alex serves clients in cross-border disputes with his strategic acumen honed over three decades of practice; his ability to find creative solutions to resolve the most complex disputes; and his excellent trial skills when amicable resolution is not possible.  Clients and peers describe him as:

• “an excellent strategist who can bring to a successful conclusion even the most complex and long-running disputes” (Chambers USA 2024);
• “an outstanding trial advocate” (Chambers USA 2019);
• “a great cross-examiner [with] a superb legal mind” (Chambers USA 2022); and 
• “a great debater and a very good writer” (Chambers USA 2020). 

He is also known for his dedication to clients, his “smart, sensible and experienced” approach to cross-border disputes, his excellent case management skills, and his expertise in investor-State disputes. According to client and peers, Alex is:

• “an example of how to best serve a client” (Chambers USA 2021);
• “regarded as ‘really smart, sensible and experienced’ by market commentators” (Chambers USA 2020); 
• a “‘terrific practitioner,’ whose clients appreciate his varied experience of arbitrations in different jurisdictions, in addition to his ‘ability to maintain good time management’” (Chambers USA 2015); and
• a lawyer who “garners considerable praise for his investor-State expertise” (Chambers Global 2013). 
  
  

Alex’s industry experience includes energy, mining, life sciences, hospitality, and financial services, in disputes arising throughout the Americas, Africa, Asia, Europe, and the Middle East.  Alex has also successfully represented clients in top-level domain disputes against the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN).  Many of his cases involve complex issues under public international and criminal law. 

Alex has arbitrated cases in many of the world’s leading arbitration institutions and under its leading rules, including the ICC, ICDR, ICSID, UNCITRAL, LCIA, PCA, SCC, CPR, and JAMS. In addition to international commercial disputes between private parties, he has extensive experience in investor-state dispute settlement (ISDS), including arbitration against foreign States and State-owned enterprises.  His experience includes claims under bilateral investment treaties (BITs), multi-lateral treaties and free-trade agreements (such as the Energy Charter Treaty, NAFTA, and CAFTA-DR), and foreign investment laws. 

Alex is a co-author of The International Arbitration Rulebook: A Guide to Arbitral Regimes (Kluwer 2019), as well as numerous articles and book chapters on international arbitration topics. He has served as an Adjunct Professor of Law at Georgetown Law School and has taught courses sponsored by the United Nations Commission on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) and the International Law Institute (ILI).

In addition to his published work on legal topics, Alex is the editor and translator of a volume of Albert Camus’s war- time journalism (“Between Hell and Reason: Essays from the French Resistance Newspaper,” Combat, 1944-1947, University Press of New England).